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HAPPINESS --- A HISTORY by Darrin M. McMahon. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006

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PREFACE (pxi-xvi)

INTRODUCTION --- the tragedy of happiness (p1-15)

PART 1 --- THE MAKING OF A MODERN FAITH


1) The highest good (p19-65)

2) Perpetual felicity (p66-139)

3) From heaven to earth (p140-196)

4) Self-evident truths (p197-252)


A MODERN RITE (p253-267)

PART 1 --- SPREADING THE WORD (p269-453)


5) Questioning the evidence (p271-311)

6) Liberalism and its discontents (p312-362)

7) Building happy worlds (p363-405)

8) Joyful science (p406-453)


Aldous Huxley's famous futuristic novel, Brave New World, is described below --- where the citizens of a dictatorial society are forced to feel happy all the time:


The experience of happy living is taken to the extreme, since the society is governed by the pleasure principle, immediate gratification, and the cult of youth while at the same time citizens are conditioned to abolish guilt and memory and regret. Also like our own society, the citizens are distracted by an arts and entertainment industry that emphasizes entertainment at the expense of art and are encouraged wherever possible to eradicate the unpleasant rather than learning to put up with it. (453)


CONCLUSION (p454-480)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (p481-483)

NOTES (p485-528)

INDEX (p529-554)

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